Roche buys Mountain View startup for as much as $350 million

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said Monday it will pay up to $350 million for Genia Technologies, a Mountain View start-up that will expand Roche’s gene-sequencing capabilities.

Genia Technologies has a proprietary technology that it says can quickly and accurately sequence DNA at a potentially lower cost compared to existing technologies. Under the deal, Genia’s shareholders will receive a total of $125 million in cash upfront. They may also receive up to $225 million in the future depending on certain milestones.

Pharmaceutical companies in general see next-generation DNA sequencing as a promising way to identify and develop effective treatments — no easy task when only 1 in 5,000 to 10,000 compounds discovered in the lab gains FDA approval.

“The acquisition of Genia is a further step for Roche to introduce a potentially disruptive technology to the market,” said Roland Diggelmann, chief operating officer of Roche Diagnostics, in a statement.